HTC One launched: Top 10 things to know

Posted by
Sahil Shah

HTC One launched: Top 10 things to know

New Delhi: Taiwan's HTC Corp has unveiled the new smartphone that it hopes will set it apart from the crowd of Google Android devices on the market and help it make up ground lost to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc. Here are the top 10 features of HTC's new flagship smartphone that you should know:

1. The company has distinguished the phone, the HTC One, from rival Android devices by using new software - the BlinkFeed feature - to replace icons on the home screen with a personalised stream of news articles, social networking updates, photos and video. HTC is grafting its own home screen on the phone, one that's similar to that of Microsoft's Windows Phone software. HTC's BlinkFeed interface consists of large tiles that update automatically with information and photos from news sites and social networks.

2. The new HTC One feature the HTC UltraPixel Camera - a new imaging technology.The UltraPixel sensor is engineered with larger pixels, and it is touted to enable each pixel to capture more than 300 per cent more light than most leading 13 megapixel cameras. This is because the larger each pixel on the image sensor is, the more light it receives, and hence the image data becomes better.

HTC has made a deliberate choice to focus on photo quality with bigger pixel size over just total pixel count. UltraPixels are larger than ordinary pixels, and take up more space on the sensor. There are less megapixels - the new HTC One takes photos at 4 megapixels resolution, but the quality of each pixel is substantially higher than the industry average.

According to the company, with the new HTC UltraPixel Camera, users will be able to quickly shoot vivid, true-to-life images with a wide range of colors, even in low light conditions. The company has not increased the number of megapixels in the camera, but has engineered a more advanced CMOS Sensor, ISP, and optical lens system that is claimed to capture significantly more light than most 8 or 13 megapixel cameras.

3. HTC is also billing it as the first smartphone with a built-in remote control function, opening a window into a potential new business model for phone vendors and cable TV operators. HTC is in discussions with cable operators in different countries, and hopes to offer a more interactive package for consumers by transforming the phone into a remote control for TVs, set-top boxes and receivers, according to analysts who attended a conference with HTC.

4. The new HTC One has a 4.7-inch full HD screen, making it larger than the iPhone but smaller than some other Android phones, including HTC's own 5-inch Droid DNA, which launched in November. The HTC One has the same screen resolution as the larger phone, at 1920 by 1080 pixels. The display also resists scratches and reduces glare, whilst offering 468ppi resolution.

5. HTC One features two speakers, at the top and bottom of the screen, producing a stereo effect when the phone is turned on its side for movie viewing.

6. The new HTC One will be available globally through more than 185 mobile operators and major retailers in more than 80 regions and countries beginning in March.

7. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, quad-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. It has 2GB DDR2 RAM. The phones comes in two variants - 32GB and 64GB.

10. It features LTE network technology to offer blazingly-fast browsing. Available in stunning silver and beautiful black, the sleek and crafted aluminium unibody is touted to sits comfortably in the hand.